Blame the Controller
Blame the Controller, also known as BTC or more commonly Blame, is a character in the Monstrous Trilogy initially found in Monstrous. He's one of the Mindcrackers and is also the last of the Ashenhorn Skullblades (pre-Residual epilogue). During Monstrous and Residual, Blame is 125 but his exact birthday is unknown, even to himself. Appearance Blame the Controller is an Ashenhorn Skullblade, meaning he wears dark leather armor with a gray dragonbone mask with horns. His mask is made from the bones of Vallor'roth himself, a rare honor among Skullblades. He is described as having dark eyes and wearing a black cloak. He carries two swords, one gray and one red, both made from pieces of Vallor'roth and in actuality being the same sword but from different time instance. Blame first appears in Monstrous and appears in almost every chapter of the trilogy. Backstory Blame has perhaps the most tragic and brutal backstory of any character in the trilogy, so much so that it's often said that he "can't catch a break." It's been said by Tanadin that Blame "doesn't have a good day until the end of Fated", meaning that his best days are only tolerable. Ashwatch Blame received his mask at age 8, two years earlier than most other Skullblades. Days after receiving his mask, he wandered around the outskirts of Ashwatch and encountered an injured Kaltaerion Davion. Kaltaerion convinced Blame to help heal him and to not tell the other Skullblades of his presence. Blame agreed to this and the two were fast friends. Over time, however, Kaltaerion fell victim to the Davion Curse and his mind started to abandon him. On December 14, 258, when Blame was ten, he opened a portal to the Nether and burned Ashwatch to the ground, killing every member of the Ashenhorn clan except for Blame. A group of wandering Sunspines found the scared and injured Blame in the wreckage and took him to Sunspire, where he spent the rest of his childhood until he was 17. Sunspire During his seven years in Sunspire, Blame suffered endless teasing from Sunspines around his own age due to his differences from them, primarily due to his mask. When he was seventeen, he finally snapped, punching a Sunspine and shattering their mask as well as most of the bones in that hand. He fought the rest of that Sunspine's group, winning the fight, and took off, running away from the jungle and not returning until the events of Residual. War of the Shattered Sands Blame wandered around the Variat and Illian kingdoms for several years, mostly avoiding contact with others until he learned of a war raging down south between Variat and Kalt'on. Realizing that he could finally make a difference and that any victory for Kalt'on was a loss for the rest of the world, he signed up with the Variat army at age 30 in the year 278. He fought with a squad of several men, quickly becoming their leader due to his prowess in combat and ability to get through just about anything alive. In 279, however, a mission went awry, leading to all of his squad except for Varion and Blame himself dying in an explosion. Blame had an injured leg but refused to leave Varion behind, who had been badly injured on his side and was missing the lower part of one of his legs. Blame helped him almost all the way to safety before a Kalt'on soldier hit him with a Kalt'onian spear, mortally wounding him. The only man left in the fortifications on the Variat side killed the soldier and tried to get both Blame and Varion back to a safer place, but Blame knew only one of them could make it. He insisted that the man take Varion and go, leaving him alone to die in the desert as the sun set. However, Guude appeared to offer him a place among the Mindcrackers as a temporary worldbuilder. Blame accepted his offer and was spared death, but according to the moral world, Blame the Controller died that day. Mindcrack Blame was a full Mindcracker for 44 years by the time that Vechs encountered the group in their mountain during the events of Monstrous. During that time he kept mostly to himself, although he made several friends among the Mindcrackers, but refused to tell them his backstory. He worked on several chunks but nothing specifically has been mentioned during the course of the trilogy. At some point, Pak joined Mindcrack, earning a spark of recognition from Blame- Pak was Varion's son, and thus recognized Blame with a little prompting. Varion had lived through the war but was by that time dead, leaving his son alone to eventually join the worldbuilders. During the battle between worldbuilder clans directly before Vechs encountering the Mindcrackers in their mountain, Blame lost several of his own chunks. He was in the battle itself and blamed himself for the loss of several other, unnamed, Mindcrackers as he was attempting to defend his work. He left the mountain for an unknown reason after this and returned for the meeting, perhaps needing some time outside of the Vortex to think. Relationships Blame originally had few friends within Mindcrack except for Pak, hating Vechs right off the bat due to his relation to Kaltaerion. After the Fall, however, he eventually warmed to Vechs and became one of his closest friends. Blame was friends with Varion, Pak's father, during the War of the Shattered Sands but that friendship was lost when Blame supposedly died in the war. During Residual, it's revealed that Blame's friendly feelings towards Vechs expanded into more romantic feelings despite his denial of them. He finds himself jealous of Aureylian until he realizes his feelings for Iirkolav, the alternate timeline Vechs that traveled back in time to save them all from certain death. Just as the two realize their feelings for each other, Iirkolav is slain, leaving Blame broken and upset. When Iirkolav returns in Fated, Blame shouts his name and tries desperately to get to him but is forced to wait until the Hostiles are defeated. During Static, Iirkolav has become a Mindcracker and is almost always at Blame's side. In the Residual epilogue, it's shown that Blame had a child, Ripper of Corruption, with the Shadefang Fatewatcher. Their partnership was only for the purpose of rebuilding the Ashenhorn clan: there was no love between them. This makes Blame the ancestor of all Ashenhorns in Fated and Static, including his descendant, Shred the Mainframe, as well as Rend the Moonlight and Eclipse the Hope. Blame was also the mentor of Mora Davion, Vechs' daughter. Occupations Blame was originally just a Skullblade, but after the death of his clan, process of elimination left him as the Clanlord of the Ashenhorns. He became a soldier during the War of the Shattered Sands on the Variat side before becoming a temporary worldbuilder with the Mindcrackers. His temporary status was soon changed to permanent and he has been a Mindcracker ever since despite the Fall. After the Fall, he became mortal again and assisted greatly in the events of Monstrous and Residual. During the Residual epilogue, he is one of the primary Dalanian advisers. During Fated, he is once again a worldbuilder. Abilities As Blame is a Skullblade, he is stronger, faster, and has better senses than most humans at the cost of his name making him vulnerable. Due to the fact that he doesn't remember his own name, he's safe from this weakness although he still doesn't remove his mask. He carries the sword of the Ashenhorn clanlord- named Veltarkon, Discipline in Dranonic- and after Iirkolav's death in Residual, he carries a second copy of this sword, albiet red instead of gray. The red sword's name changed from Veltarkon to Vamorrot, which translates to Strife. Blame also wears a mask made from the bones of Vallor'roth, similar to his swords, perhaps granting him extra ability or simply meaning that he is a particularly powerful Skullblade. Blame otherwise shows no other outward abilities other than worldbuilder powers and, rarely, the Blessing of Vallor'roth, which can come into effect on any Skullblade.